Plansee Group says that it increased its consolidated sales in the fiscal year 2014/15 to €1.26 billion.
‘On an operational level we were able to increase sales by 5%,’ said Dr Michael Schwarzkopf, chairman of the executive board of Plansee Group. ‘While sales prices remained stable, we achieved new record levels in our sales volumes.’
More than half of group sales were achieved in the three sectors of mechanical engineering, automotive and consumer electronics. ‘We were surprised by the demand from the automotive and aerospace industries in Europe,’ added Schwarzkopf. In Asia, the Plansee Group gained market shares with products for the consumer electronics industry.
In terms of the regions, sales remained stable compared with the previous year (Europe 49%, America 28%, and Asia 23%).
For the first time, 34% of sales were realized with products that are less than five years old. ‘This is the result of our sustainable investments in research and development,’ said Schwarzkopf. On a group-wide level, more than €60 million (5% of sales) were invested in innovation projects.
During the last fiscal year, the Plansee Group made investments of €180 million. These included acquisitions, new production plants in India and South Korea, investments in increased production capacities in Austria and Luxemburg and expenditures for product and process innovations.
In 2005 all group activities generated total sales of €900 million.
This story is reprinted from material from Plansee, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
